


There Was a Railroad Line on the Road to Hell

by silverskyfullofstars



Series: Marvel + Broadway AUs and Crossovers [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Hadestown - Mitchell, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bucky as Eurydice, Hadestown AU, I figured I'd tag it anyway, I mean LOOSELY, Multi, Natasha as Persephone, Pierce as Hades, Sam as Hermes, Steve as Orpheus, loosely based on a musical, the character death is implied and expected based on the myth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-15 18:33:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18504676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverskyfullofstars/pseuds/silverskyfullofstars
Summary: The story of a singer and his songbird, and their journey down below.





	There Was a Railroad Line on the Road to Hell

**Author's Note:**

> Hadestown's opening night is tonight, and the music grabbed me and shook me by the shoulders and told me to write this. The music, the story, the cast - all of it is beautiful and you should listen to it.
> 
> I know that Nat/Pierce is a terrible ship, but she makes a good Persephone and he's the most logical Hades I could think of, so oh well, I guess. They're supposed to hate each other anyway.

The sun is warm on Steve’s face, warm on his lips where the music flows like river water. The air is sweet with springtime, and Bucky smiles with flowers braided in his hair. The trees reach tall into the sky, and the railroad tracks are far-off and forgotten, for the moment. There is only them in the stillness, though the echoes of laughter from the others are still faint in the leaves. They don’t matter, here in the sunshine with the lilies and poppies that color the ground beneath their feet. He sings his song to the sky, and the train whistle echoes his call.

 

The people flock to the tracks, a man with a gap-toothed smile and wings on his feet leading them. The car opens, and she is here, with her green dress and her red hair and her suitcase with the summer sun spilling out. The springtime rises with her calling voice and her dancing feet, and Steve raises his own voice in harmony as Bucky spins them through the clearing-turned-dance-floor.

 

His arms are warm and sturdy and strong, a strength that bends but never breaks. Steve mirrors that strength in his voice, warm and clear and smooth like honey. He will never forget this, dark-hair-pale-eyes-bright-smile framed by sunlight. He doesn’t know that across from him, Bucky is committing gold-hair-blue-eyes-shy-smile to memory, determined not to lose it. Something in him wishes to capture the moment in a ring of gold, but despite their joy he knows there is none to be found in their springtime paradise.

 

Their paradise is not permanent. Springtime’s flame-red hair dulls from living fire to frozen ruby as the summer wears on, and her voice sours with the overripe fruit when the train’s whistle calls again. Bucky wears a crown of autumn leaves and worry when he takes his golden lover’s hand next to the tracks. She is complaining to the Messenger, her voice taking on the poison of a dying tree as the train grows closer. The Messenger’s voice is low and deep in his farewell, and Steve weaves his own light tenor in to wish their Lady of the Underground goodbye.

 

Death, in his black suit that shimmers with gold and silver, steps from the stopped train and smiles, his dark gaze pulling Springtime down to the depths of the earth. The Three hum at the change, expected and yet a spectacle. Bucky can’t help but be drawn to the shimmer of silver, of gold. The train whistles, and Springtime fades into the black.

 

The winter is bitter. The food dwindles with the fire, and Steve can do nothing but whisper snatches of song into the wind, leaving Bucky to find the food, to cut the wood, to beat his hands against the frozen earth in a plea for help. Finally, the Three visit him: the first with her dark, intelligent eyes and crimson lips; the second with her wise, young face and scarlet hands; the third with her smile like stars and silver metal in her braided hair. They give him a coin and tell him to take the train Down Below.

 

Death smiles a rattlesnake’s grin, and his fingers close around the ferryman’s fare. And so the songbird flies over the wall, leaving his dear poet behind in the cold of winter. He lands among the workers, dead-eyed and trudging. The Lethe leeches his mind, his memories, and he walks among them, his song fading and his soul sold down the railroad tracks.

 

His beloved singer cries out into the wintry forest, pleading with the Messenger to help. The man with the wings on his feet shows Steve the way down, down the tracks to Hadestown. He warns him of their eyes and takes his name for safekeeping. The singer’s song flows out into the dark like the River of Forgetfulness, the River of Pain, the River of Lamentation, the River of Fire. It washes over the wall, a stone River of Hatred.

 

The barbed wire quivers and breaks, the stones draw away, and the workers watch as the musician searches for his songbird. Springtime hears his voice and is moved from her drunken, drugged stupor. Her heart hears the sunlight, but Death’s heart is still shuttered. The singer’s voice breaks when he finally finds his songbird, bent but not broken as the haze clears from his pale grey eyes. Springtime pleads with Death, and though Death would never say, the music touches something within him.

 

The Three slither into the uncertain king’s mind. Free them and face rebellion, or deny them and face accusation? They hand him a hangman’s rope with the promise to pass it on. 

_ Men are fools _

_ Men are frail _

_ Give them the rope and they’ll hang themselves… _

 

They crawl on their clawed fingers toward the departing couple, bound by their promise not to turn back. They sow doubt in the singer’s mind, doubt that his songbird follows in the dark. Not even Bucky’s thin, wavering song can restore faith. Despite grasping hands and pleading lips, the musician turns only to see his songbird fade with a silent scream, as if he is falling away.

 

His steps are heavy as he returns, and he sinks to his knees in the snow. Not even the Springtime’s return on the morning train consoles him. There is nothing to be done as he fades with his songbird to the black.

 

The Messenger raises his voice to sing their story to the world. Springtime raises her glass to their love. Even the faded are not forgotten.

**Author's Note:**

> In case you were curious, I cast Peggy, Wanda, and Shuri as my Fates.
> 
> Spotify playlist of the Hadestown soundtrack (not by me): https://open.spotify.com/user/flannery8/playlist/1WXg2ARS40Akndznr5HJP4?si=ju-Zi_zoRceRzmMDfGSsPA
> 
> Hadestown lyrics: https://genius.com/albums/Original-cast-of-hadestown/Hadestown-the-myth-the-musical-live-original-cast-recording


End file.
